Unparalleled in its wide-ranging coverage of European borders in fiction, this book traverses over 600 novels and short stories to examine how post-1945 novelists have debated European borders.

Examining the structures that underpin borders and boundaries, Hammond provides important new insights into the ideologies, processes and effects of territorialisation and its related issues – conflict, migration, populism, nationalism, regionalism and globalisation. Thoroughly contextualising the literary texts in terms of geopolitical developments, new border regimes and human rights, he offers new ways of understanding the cultural dimensions of bordering processes in the modern age.

Hammond complements other more theoretical approaches by using a 'distant reading' approach to open up new avenues for research and create robust grounds for comparison. Emphasising three main types of border – civilizational borders, physical borders and social borders – this book examines the ideological underpinnings of the construction of boundaries, the military and bureaucratic practices of physical exclusion and the social and psychological consequences for those who are excluded.

Drawing on writings from both Europe and the Global South, this study represents a significant contribution to European literary studies and continental border writing. It opens up important new avenues for decolonised research and teaching for scholars across literary and border studies.